5 comments about Man's Search for Meaning.

1. This book was suggested as recommended reading in Daniel Pink's book "Whole new mind". I found it so inspiring that I had to purchase 3 copies; one for myself and two for friends. It gives perspective to life and why we are here.
   It's incredible to read the insight of a man who lived through the horrors of Auschwitz and Dachau and is able to write about it with such clarity and wisdom. In particular his perspective as a psychologist living through this time is extremely insightful. I have suggested this book to a few people now; a definite for those needing stories of resilience.



2. From the perspective of a member in a culture consumed in the "existential vacuum", Frankl's experiences and logotheraphy discussion offers a call to action for those prepared to live a meaningful life. This book will change you.



3. What can a person expect of life in a concentration camp? Is there a chance you can find meaning in living that torture? This is a truly inspirational book that reminds you that not everything is lost, that you can find light in the most terrible conditions. It's not new age, it's a story of survival and hope.
   The second part of the book is about logotherapy. Victor Frankl was the creator of this discipline and it basically addresses the question of meaning in people's lives.



4. I read this book regularly for inspiration. Frankl found a way to confront the greatest evil of the last century, which for him was very personal, and survive. In the midst of it he discovered that we most long for meaning in our lives, and so he developed a therapy that helps people search for it.
   
   The beginning part of the book about life in the camps simply cannot be forgotten. And then, when he tries to make sense of it, ordinary readers realize that whatever they have suffered there is a way forward. Frankl used tragedy to help others. A person can't be more noble than that.
   
   Lawrence J. Epstein, author of "At the Edge of a Dream: The Story of Jewish Immigrants on New York's Lower East Side."



5. The following summarizes the true meanings the author wants us to absorb.
   There are three avenues to arrive at the meaning of life. 1) Creating a work or or doing a deed 2) Experiencing or encountering something added to your life i.e. finding love 3) facing a fate one cannot change. You then rise above oneself, rising above what is expected. One grows from the experience, and experiences positive change.
   Experiencing and surviving suffering is something to be proud of... not something to be ashamed of. We all learn and grow from our experiences.

5 comments about The Hiding Place (Deluxe Christian Classics).

1. While the story of the ten Boom family is valuable for its portrayal of courage and integrity, I was astonished that Corrie ten Boom makes no reference to others imprisoned in Ravenbruck for their faith. She, in fact, was considered a political prisoner because of the ration cards, and defiance of laws regarding the Jews. But in fact, there were hundreds of women in Ravensbruck, known as Bibelforscher, (which in German means "Bible students,") who had been there far longer. This fact was testified to by Genevieve deGaulle, neice of Charles deGaulle, who was also in Ravenbruck for French undergound activity. It is proper to recognize those few members of the churches who defied Hitler, but about ten thousand Bibelforscher were imprisoned throughout the war, while thousands more remained largely underground, though their numbers doubled during the war years. Hitler had banned the Bibelforscher in 1934 because of their forthright and vocally public opposition to the Nazi party, and by 1938 they composed about 15% of the concentration camp population. Perhaps the reason they are ignored is because they are today known as Jehovah's Witnesses.



2. Readers know from the outset Corrie Ten Boom survived to help write the book but it's such an intriguing journey to get there. The authors include numerous jewels along the way, stories that stick with the reader long after the book is back on the shelf: the train ticket held by her father until the perfect time, the test of faith by not lying about family hiding under the kitchen table, the fleas having a purpose, the heartbreak of the love of her life marrying someone else, rebuilding the radio while in prison, the astounding respect and love for her father and sister while incarcerated.
   
   Each chapter utilizes powerful imagery to flesh out an application of Eternal Truth ready for internalizing.
   
   The lessons may be applied to every day life since these were not merely `characters' but most obviously real people, with extreme trials to maneuver in life and in death. Ordinary becomes extraordinary, utilizing compelling subject matter with a page turning writing style exhibiting firm faith in the Lord. It's one of those classics that affords readers immediate application to their own circumstances since they can identify with her and her family on so many levels.
   
   Finally a work like this inspires and uplifts. I found myself continually discovering the answer (Grace) on almost every page to such questions as "Why did God let this happen?" and "How did she do it?". The Hiding Place is a classic I enjoy re-reading every few years. I'm amazed at the fresh perspective I have each time. It's timeless.
   
   One of my favorite poetic verses from Corrie Ten Boom, who quoted it often (it was by Grant Colfax Tullar), is the following:
   
   "My life is but a weaving betwixt my God and me;
   I do not choose the colors He worketh steadily.
   Oft times He weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride
   Forget He sees the upper, and I the underside.
   Not till the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly
   Will God unfold the pattern and explain the reason why.
   For the dark threads are as needful in the Weaver's skillful hand
   As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned."



3. This is an absolutely fantastic book! This is a lesson in how not to give up. A lesson in how to pursue dreams. A lesson in how to be of help to the less fortunate. A lesson in how to live. A lesson in how to be close to the Father, and always believe in him. This is a must-read!



4. I will not go into detail on this very public site about what this author, and her book, mean to me. Suffice it to say that I would not be alive today, without having heard Corrie's message of God's infinite love.
   
   As a psychiatrist, I have bought, and given away to patients, at least 50 copies of this book over the past two decades. It is more powerful than the strongest of antidepressants.
   
   Corrie ten Boom is a saint. She will not be officially recognized as such by the Catholic Church since she was nominally a Protestant. I say nominally, because her heart, like God's, was deep enough and wide enough to encompass and embrace all people, no matter what "religion" they practiced. Corrie's religion was Love.



5. The Hiding Place should be read by EVERY Christian. Corrie and her sister's testimony in this book is just like reading the Bible's testimony of the new Believers! Need to feel inspired? Read The Hiding Place.

5 comments about Man's Search for Meaning.

1. A stunning story of a man who survived the horrors of concentration camps. He is a psychiatrist and developed his own theories and method of therapy called logotherapy. The book covers his experience in a concentration camp and the second half of the book explains his philosophy of logotherapy. Frankl says that the meaning of life is found in every moment of living; life never ceases to have meaning, even in suffering and death. He encourages his patients and readers to live a full life by looking to the future rather than reliving the past.
   
   Quotation: "Self-transcendence of human existence: Being human always points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than oneself - be it a meaning to fulfil or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself - by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love - the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself..."
   
   Excellent read. Highly Recommended.



2. Just in case, if one wants to ascertain the level of endurance human beings possess, he needs to go no further than read through the experiences at concentration camps as recalled by a survivor - Viktor Frankl - in this book.
   
   And considering that a will to survive does not manifest only in situations where life is at stake, physically, but at various stages in life, where even smallest of problems can seem mammoth and wreck havoc in making life miserable at psychological level, the lessons contained in this book have vast practical applications, when it comes to understanding our survival instinct.
   
   The basic principle which differentiates a survivor from a loser is well highlighted by the following quote, which is often cited by the author in the book - 'The one who has a why to live can bear almost any how.'
   
   I would highly recommend this book and would suggest re-reading it a few times because it would better enable on to grasp and internalize the importance of the subject addressed in this book and appreciate the viewpoint of the author.



3. I first read this book in college many years ago as I was working on my degree in psychology. An excerpt from it is in John McCain's autobiographical book, Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir. I was glad to be reminded of this book which I had not read in years. I found my old copy on the shelf but I am also glad to learn it is still available.
   
   The comparison between Frankl and McCain as prisoners is striking. Both of them emphasize the basic human need for meaning and purpose. Both share incredible horrors of prison camp as well as the human ability to look beyond present circumstances, to keep the horrid memories from continuing as sources of torture years after the actual experiences.
   We can apply this ability to many of the unfortunate experiences in our lives. It is not only an attitude of forgive and forget, it is the need to keep the horrors or smaller angers from continuing to torment us.
   
   It is more than a little frightening that there are people who deny that the Holocaust even happened. I hope you read Frankl's book. Fully grasp the reality of his day and apply it to today's needs and problems.



4. This is a wonderful book to read merely because of it's main message. Read it and find out the meaning of the title.



5. I bought this book because I was searching for yet another book on workplace bullying and another book came up in my search based on Frankl's book. I read the customer reviews on that book and one reviewer said something to the effect of, "If you want to read a book based on Viktor Frankl's opinion of how to get along at a bad work environment (like a Nazi death camp), why don't you just read Frankl's book?" So, that's where I started. I read it. Twice. Then I got out my computer and typed in passages that had meaning to me so I could re-read them during difficult times. I compressed the entire book down to about 10 pages, single spaced. I must admit that I consider myself a negative, often depressed sort of person, mostly because my work situation is so demoralizing. I was amazed by Frankl's coping mechanisms on how to get along in a difficult situation; every day meant multiple incidents of having to choose the correct path to avoid death or worse, making the choice to give up on your own life (suicide). He went through 5 years of that and lived to tell about it. It is a must read for everyone, particularly when you are having the hardest time of your life. I could tell that if I had read it as a college student, it wouldn't have the same meaning as now, when I am 50 and have had many ups and downs. I see everything at such a deeper level and appreciated this book so much more than I would have if I were younger. Briefly, the lessons in the book written 50 years ago still apply today. Here they are: Let luck be your guide. It's not what you know, it's who you know. Network with the equivalent of a one-step-up lateral (not your own) middle manager and they will help you when they can. Schmooze. Be kind to others. Don't complain, it doesn't help. You can't fix, deal with or appeal to a sadist, so don't try. Avoid sadists at all costs. Keep your mouth shut unless asked for your opinion and then be short and to the point. Praise, even when praise isn't deserved. Keep criticisms to yourself. Be inconspicuous. Work hard for the sake of doing a good job. Fantasize for escape. Everything can be taken away from you except for your past, so relish in it. When something good happens to you, write it down (keep a gratitude journal). Don't do anything that compromises your own values so you won't have regrets. Be careful who you abuse today because tomorrow they may be your master. You are not your job, your title or your position. You are a unique person loved by others. The only thing in life that really matters is the people you love and the people who love and need you. Love shared is eternal. Treat everyone with respect. The meaning of life is not what life can do for you, but what life expects of you; how you make the world a better place with your presence. The purpose of life is not happiness. The purpose of life is discovering what you can contribute to it. Save a slice of bread (or whatever is the only material thing that matters to you when there is nothing left) for later when you are really depressed and it's the only thing left that can get you through that difficult moment. (For me it's chocolate and a dark beer at the same time.) Apathy is the signaling of the beginning of the end of one's life. Everyone that you respect and look up to has human failings. Even tough guys cry. Suffering without purpose is meaningless. The larger the suffering, the bigger the lesson. There's lots more in the book for you to discover and it's an easy read.

5 comments about Night.

1. A horrifying account of one man's survival of the concentration camps during the Nazi regime. This book is quite short--maybe 50 pages or so, but in those few pages Wiesel's words are chilling, devestating and horrifying. And I hope that anyone who reads it might then get a small insight into the worst crime against humanity in the western world and say "never again."



2. Wow...every page is like a sock in the gut, and like many memoirs full of twisted events, I find myself hoping it isn't true. But what's most remarkable is Wiesel's legacy, how he survived and lived to tell about it as a respected intellectual (this isn't a part of the story). Historically relevant, brutally tragic, painfully morbid. A true story about hanging on to life, and literally losing everything but. It's small enough to read in a day, and that might be the best way to go about it. I read it in small, painful chunks. As I read it, I often felt ashamed of humanity for it's self-destructive cruelty. This story includes the extra detail they didn't put in your history book.



3. I received this item in a timely matter in great condition! Would do business with again!



4. As an English teacher, I have my ninth graders read this memoir every year. And every year, I am moved to tears. Not only does Mr. Wiesel tell of his devastating experience of dehumanization in the Holocaust, but he tells it with such eloquence and mastery of the English language, that one would wonder if he was always a writer. This is his first book and it reads like a story written by some of the greatest writers of the literary canon. Be forewarned that his story will change your perspective on life and will most likely you move you to tears as well. If it doesn't, than as my Pastor would say, "your wood is wet."
   
   You may be asking yourself, "why would I want to read something that will just get me upset?" My answer to that is that if we don't get upset, how can we facilitate change? Ignorance leads to bliss? No way--it leads to destruction. Furthermore, antisemitism hasn't gone away. And in the midst of the violence and hatred exploding in the middle east 63 years after Hitler was defeated, there are millions of people who once again want to annihilate the Jews and are devising plans to do just that. So this memoir must be read. Mr. Wiesels' story must be heard.



5. From the moment we had began on this book in our classes it was truly an eye opener. Words cannot describe the misery that was felt in each and every word this book had within. The book itself had casted night over all of us, especially me as we listened intently on what could be known as the most heart striking tale. From the start of the camp to the death marchings in the snow, the story gives a full eye account of the horror that was seen in the Nazi war. No story ever has been written so amazingly nor dramaticly as this. Yes, it touched me darkly and it burned deeply but this story, this story is something everyone should read because no one should forget what happened so long ago. You cant go your whole life without reading this book, its something that you should not miss.
   
   I give it a rating of five stars and I hope you, the reader, can also find that too.

5 comments about All But My Life.

1. This is one of the first Holocaust survival stories that I read. It is by far one that has stayed with me in the most detail.
   
   What a strong girl Gerda is. she was told to never give up her boots and in the end it is one thing that saved her life after marching in a blizzard half frozen to death. How she survived is nothing short of a miracle.
   
   Reading this when you are in a hard time reminds you that you do have the inner strength to survive. If she can do that then I can face my problems. It is quite graphic and tells the truth of really happened in the holocaust.
   
   I'm not going to give the story away I'm just going to say you will cry and rejoyce in this story. It will touch you to core of your very being.
   
   I must read for EVERYONE!



2. I have read many of the holocaust books out there but this is the one I pass on to friends to read. Especially moving is the liberation of the prisoners at the end of the book. I wish all schools made this mandatory reading. What a way to learn history! This author is quite an incredible woman.



3. This book was gripping and I could not put it down until I finished it. It's so hard to believe the hardships so many endured for being Jewish. A must read. Beautifully written with rich detail.



4. I read this book a long time ago and just got done listening to the book on tape for the second time. It is the most powerful representation of the Holocaust I have found. Please read this book if you want to learn about the Holocaust from a gifted author and survivor.



5. Despite the horrors around her, and fellow prisoners dying and becoming mentally unbalanced every day, young Gerda Weissman managed to survive several Nazi camps from the late 1930s through the grisly end of World War II.
   
   Imagine being a teenager, wrenched away from your beloved parents, older brother and home -- and never seeing any of them ever again. It would be enough to make anyone unstable, not to mention bitter. Yet somehow, Gerda emerges from her horrifying ordeal stronger than she began. As her body heals in a hospital run by the Allies during the spring of 1945, Gerda begins a relationship with Kurt Klein -- a young soldier who urges her to tell her story.
   
   Now an elderly woman living in Arizona, Gerda Weissman Klein is able to see just how far she's come from the young Jewish girl living a priviledged life in Poland. Yet at the same time, her writing style allows readers to see clearly just how that same persona has managed to live such a rich, eventful life to the fullest all of these years.
   
   I've read many Holocaust memoirs, though I must say that Gerda's story is beautifully and distinctly told.

5 comments about The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life.

1. Tom Reiss: `The Orientalist'
   
   I am not in the habit of leaving on-line feedback about my reading, but this book, `The Orientalist', is so exceptional, so original, so brilliantly conceived and so splendidly executed, that - given the chance to leave some comments - it seems almost mean-spirited not to take up the opportunity.
   
   In fact, I've already provided some `feedback' about this book, recommending it (via email) to others. This in itself, on reflection, seems to me to be unusual behaviour. Normally I let others make their own discoveries, finding for themselves what to read that may be interesting, informative or enjoyable. In this sense, therefore, as well as others, this book, `The Orientalist', took me out of my accustomed ways of looking at things.
   
   Everyone to whom I've recommended this book has purchased it and told me how remarkable it is. One reader, in France, wrote back to say that she'd read it twice! In some ways I can understand that, as, while reading it, more than once I returned to earlier chapters to re-read certain passages, to acquaint myself again with some of the personalities and events with which the book is occupied, and with the well-crafted prose of the author.
   
   What is `The Orientalist' `about'? In some ways this is a non-fiction detective story, with the author investigating a kind of literary mystery. There is, for a start, a book, a novel, `Ali and Nino'. But who wrote it? About this, the authorship of what appears to be the pre-eminent national work of Azerbaijan, a romantic, compelling novel, there is, or has been, considerable controversy. In a sense, as in any mystery, in any detective story, there is a `crime' - in this case, the crime being the theft, from an author (now deceased), of credit for his work.
   
   But in investigating this question, Tom Reiss uncovers layer after layer of lost fragments of history, and politics, and culture. The deeper he explores this question of authorship, the greater the breadth (historical, political and cultural) of the book. In the end, this is a wonderful journey that Tom Reiss takes his readers on, travelling back in time and across borders, into and out of nations and empires whose eventful lives and often dismal fortunes correspond to that of `the Orientalist' himself.
   
   For the title of the book refers not to a `type' of person, but rather to a specific individual, and, as a result, this book rescues that person - born Lev Nussimbaum, and subsequently known both as Essad Bey and as Kurban Said - from literary obscurity. It is a rescue entirely deserved. Tom Reiss was drawn into the life of Lev Nussimbaum as a result of being captivated by one of his books, Ali and Nino, and, in a somewhat comparable fashion, though at the same time a bit topsy-turvy, I was drawn to read Lev Nussimbaum's `Ali and Nino' as a result of reading Tom Reiss's `The Orientalist'.
   
   This on-line comment about `The Orientalist' is not intended to be a full-length review of the book; it is `feedback' and, at the same time, a warm invitation to experience a truly unique piece of work. Of course, one of the characters in the book is Tom Reiss himself, travelling about, meeting people, coming across manuscripts. Some of those he meets are to be found in castles, in Europe; others are down the street, if not down the hall, in New York City apartments. The logic of his book is compelling, as he discovers, and uncovers, the life that Lev and his father led - the life of refugees, fleeing from revolutionary violence, falling from a dreamy and dream-like existence in Baku to the desperate straits of exile, in `the East', through Turkestan and Persia, to Constantinople, and then on to Paris and Berlin.
   
   For me, this is an account, as well, of the devotion of two people, father and son, to one another's well-being. The father, once wealthy (on Baku oil), strives to lead his son towards peace and security; the history of the 20th century, filled with war and revolution, characterised by cruelty rather than compassion, makes these goals all too elusive. Still, in reduced and hazardous circumstances, they try to look after one another, and it is their relationship - their concern for one another - and the life-and-death predicaments in which they continue to find themselves, that provides a deeply touching motif to the work.
   
   But for the most part this is an exciting, even thrilling, fast-paced real-life thriller. In order for us to understand what is going on - and how Lev Nussimbaum is going to turn into Kurban Said - Tom Reiss has to explain the politics - the revolutions, the wars, the personalities - pivotal to the story of Lev and his father Abraham. Here is a book in which the main character, Lev Nussimbaum - born in 1905 on a train, with an oil magnate for a father and a radical revolutionary for a mother - arrives, in Baku, on the day of his birth, to a city in turmoil, a forerunner of a life shaped by politics and upheaval. In later years he will personally blame Stalin (who seems to have been a friend of his mother's and may have stayed in the family home) for much of his life's turbulence and misfortunes. In this respect a depiction of Lev Nussimbaum's life seems to me to validate the writer Arthur Koestler's observation in the first volume of his autobiography, `Arrow in the Blue', that a `secular horoscope', noting the political events on earth at the time of a person's birth and their subsequent influence over a person's life - `the constellation of earthly events' - may well provide a useful perspective on a person's subsequent fate.
   
   One consequence of reading the book - and becoming caught up in the lives of its protagonists - is to regard one's own life, at least for a time, somewhat differently. That surely is a mark of an outstanding book - to cause oneself to look at one's life in a new light. This moment occurred most dramatically when I had just finished reading about Lev, as a young boy, disobeying orders, and looking out a window, to see bodies in the street, and carts coming by, gathering up the dead - as the shooting between different revolutionary factions continued. Thinking of what I'd read, and of his plight, while walking through the streets where I live, I suddenly saw those streets, and the buildings adjacent to them, in a different way, observing their tranquility - noticing what was absent: no bodies; no gunshots; no armed men - in contrast with what was `normal' in the life of this young man, not even 100 years ago.
   
   Tom Reiss's `The Orientalist' is a magnificent achievement, a stunning, brilliantly researched and absorbingly written publication. This on-line comment, already far too long, can only hint at the extraordinary array of topics traversed in the narrative. Indeed, I can scarcely recall a book any way like it, so wide-ranging, fascinating, original and informative - and, as noted, quite moving as well. The book is an adventure and it will lead readers to discover places, people, events, incidents and lives they scarcely could have dreamed existed. And it may also lead some readers to find their way to `Ali and Nino', a lovely jewel of a novel, dream-like and wonderful; and for making that journey possible Tom Reiss is also warmly to be thanked.
   
   



2. I read this book for my Book Club.
   I read The Orientalist last summer ('07) and now the book seems to fade into obscurity.
   I don't remember a whole lot, but I do remember not really coming to care a whole lot about Kurban Said.
   Very forgetable to me although there is a bit of history that is interesting.



3. I was a bit dissapointed in this book. I had read Ali and Nino and, of course, the reviews for this book. I was prepared for adventure in the form of a historical novel. I wonder if the reviewers cited in the front and back of the book only read the introduction, which gives away the story, including the 'ending.' The rest of the book provides historical context to the story told in the introduction. There are relatively long (20-30 pages?) digressions on the history of (for example) the Ottoman Empire, German culture during the rise of the Nazis, etc. Very interesting and worthwhile stuff to be sure and I am very glad that I read this book. However, readers need to be prepared for this type of text. The read was quite a bit slower than I expected. The 'story' in my opinion, is much more interesting than the book itself. The 'story' here, includes the efforts of the author, which were certainly inspiring.



4. I wanted to read this autobiography for two reasons: 1)I very much enjoyed the novel, 'Ali and Nino' by Essad Bey; and 2) I am fascinated with the history of the Caucuses and Central Asia.
   
   Tom Reiss thoroughly explores Bey's life from his childhood in Azerbaijan during the most turbulent times of the early 20th century, but Mr. Reiss goes beyond that, and depicts the times and events. The accounts of Russian history and the Bolshevik revolution are fascinating. Later on, when Bey lives in Berlin, the book tends to slow a bit. Overall, 'The Orientalist' is a fascinating account of European history during the rise of Bolshevism and fascism.Taxi to Tashkent: Two Years with the Peace Corps in Uzbekistan



5. The book feels a bit like watching 'Pop up video'. The tale is of a man trying to shed his identity in a world that hates who he is. The story is interspersed with a secret history of the early 20th century. About half the book has little to do with the central character. Its more a history of the time in which he lives.
   What's appealing about the book is that there is a lot of history that I had no clue about. Jewish Orientalist history, about Stalin, Germany etc but the story about Leo Nussimbaum feels to me flawed. I don't understand why he deceided to be a writer. I don't understand what made him tick. He makes all sorts of strange decisions that the author cannot unravel.
   An intersting book in bits but doesn't hold together as a biography.

5 comments about Scheisshaus Luck: Surviving the Unspeakable in Auschwitz and Dora.

1. I've read countless accounts, short and long, on the holocaust. Berg's piece can take its place alongside the important works of Weisel, Ten Boom, and Steiner.
   
   Each eyewitness retelling of the experience reads differently. Not because history is subjective, but rather each writer is simply sharing their own hellish experience from the perspective of the small world through which they survived. Each story is coloured by the age, gender, religious belief system, personality, and circumstances of the author. In the present case -- an 18 year old gentile snatched up with the Jews and shipped to Auschwitz (then marched on to Dora). He is strong-willed, resourceful and clever, and "lucky". He survives.
   
   He was a young man, not a child, not an observant Jew, and writes with a sense of dark, wry humor - mindful of the bad and good circumstances through which he survived. As always, the story is horrific. It is important that these memoirs are put to paper. Each tells the story of a survivor and 6 million non-survivors. This one is well told. Recommended.



2. The absorbing account of a young French resistance courier's capture by the Nazis, Scheisshaus Luck is a valuable addition to the library of WWII survivor stories. The title refers to the random nature of life and death, freedom and capture that prevailed in the occupied territories. The reader must be impressed by author Pierre Berg's remarkable resourcefulness and resilience as a "guest" of the Nazis at Auschwitz and Dora camps. Berg answers two questions I have long wondered: what kind of person could survive the Nazi camps without losing all humanity, and what kept these poor souls going in this terrible Hell on earth? (The answer to the latter here is the author's love of a girl, whom he believes he re-encounters near the end of the story.) Scheisshaus Luck is especially useful for its detail of the death march prisoners had to endure, even as Russian liberators were days away. I am deducting one star from my rating, for this book, as interesting and well written as it is, falls just short of the top tier of survival stories. It is ironic that the author's sang-froid and sense of humor that were so essential to his survival here undermine his effort. This book does not get your blood boiling about the Nazi atrocities, nor does it get your tears flowing. For that, I recommend 80629: A Mengele Experiment, which is the most harrowing account of human suffering and barbarity I have ever read.



3. Pierre Berg picked the wrong time to visit a friend's house, but he most certainly didn't pick the wrong time to team up with Brian Bock. Together this writing team has picked through a Halocaust experience with wisdom and wit. I am sure this work was a struggle to reach into some deep memories so that a history from the view of the imprisoned resistance fighters could be told. Very well done!



4. Author Pierre Berg adds a fresh perspective to the well established post-Holocaust literature. As a young French teenager, he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time while visiting a friend's house at the same time as the SS and he found himself plunged into the nightmarish world of the Nazi concentration camps. If we can believe his account, he survived from a combination of being non-Jewish, athletically fit, being bright and resourceful, his multilingual talents and from pure dumb luck- hence the title. Although conditions were better for non-Jews, the suffering endured by the protagonist and those around him was horrifying enough. Mr. Berg, however, always seemed to keep his wits about him and that more than anything, kept him alive. This is a very straightforward telling of a fantastic tale and one is struck by the strength of his survival instinct as well as his inborn gallic cynicism- a healthy cynicism, it turns out. Though one cannot help but reel at the atrocities he was forced to witness and endure, he never seems to lose his cool, save when, after his liberation, he fails to find the girl he was romantically entangled with at the start of his ordeal. It's an understandable lapse. This sense of detachment keeps the book from collapsing under the weight of the appalling suffering detailed within. I was a little disturbed by his indifference to the forced rape that occurs throughout much of the book and though he belatedly offers apologies for his insensitivity, it struck me as a little false. That point aside, I was riveted throughout most of the read. Although this book is a bit late to the dance, it is a very readable and valuable addition to the history of that accursed time.



5. When I read the beginning of this book, the saying, "No good deed goes unpunished" popped into my head. The author Pierre Berg, as an adolescent involved in the French Resistance movement, wound up being arrested and sent to a concentration camp. His crime: attempting to aid a schoolfriend. Even worse, his parents were away on a trip, and he wasn't allowed to contact them.
   
   Shortly thereafter, the 18-year-old Berg found himself with other prisoners sent to Auschwitz, then onto Dora with several more stops before managing to find freedom. He endures all the horrors you would expect in such a situation, and relates them in stark, caustic prose.
   
   If like me, you think of the Holocaust as something which happened primarily to Jews, this book will be an eye opener. Berg, himself a gentile, meets political prisoners, Gypsies, criminals and others who unfortunate to find themselves considered undesirable by the Nazis. Berg
   survives partly by ingenuity and will, but also, as he says, through sheer luck. I hate to use cliches like "triumph of the human spirit" but that's exactly what "Scheisshaus Luck" is a testament to.
   
   
   

5 comments about The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945.

1. Polish filmaker Roman Polanski who was born and raised in Poland by Catholic parents, was there to see what it was really like, unlike many others who were never there, but make ignorent anti-Polish judgements. It's funny how those who were actually there, like Wladislaw, tell a completely different story that the Hollywood/Media tells. Wladyslaw told the truth. Read the book, and see the movie. Get this book and movie to your schools and libraries - Please. This story has healing qualities that brings people together, and not apart.



2. This book is an incredible story of survival. I have seen the movie also. I would recommend both!



3. One of those amazing stories that makes you realize just how much the human spirit can take, and still survive. And just how inhumane we humans can be towards each other. Once you start reading, you won't be able to put this down.



4. Szpilman reveals the tragedy of Jewish life in Warsaw under the German occupation from 1939-1946. Szpilman's autobiographical work was first published in postwar Poland in 1946 but then quickly removed from circulation by Polish authorities. An accomplished pianist before the war, Szpilman played for Polish Radio during the siege of Warsaw and later within the Jewish ghetto to provide food for his parents and siblings. With the systematic liquidation of Jewish life in Warsaw and separation from his family, Szpilman's life took a series of surprising twists. As the reader views life in the ghetto through the eyes of a survivor, his escape from the ghetto before the Jewish up-rising and his ultimate survival consistently depended upon a timely combination of luck and sympathetic acquaintances B including a German army officer.
   
   Included with Szpilman's memoirs are excerpts from Captain Wilm Hosenfeld's diaries and Wolf Biermann's own brief commentary. Hosenfeld's equating of National Socialism with Stalinist Communist and Biermann's emphasis on Szpilman's willingness to break with his past detracts from the overall quality of this work. Nevertheless, this work is well written and will retain the reader's attention to the end.



5. I could not put down this book, and read it in two sittings. Wladyslaw Szpilman, the famed pianist and composer, describes his harrowing account of life under Nazi terror. As a Polish Jew, Szpilman was considered by the Nazis to be entirely subhuman, and it is a miracle he survived the persistent and random acts of violence that surrounded him. He was nearly sent to a death camp along with his five family members, and somehow was pulled off the Birkenau-bound train to a grim prospect of survival. The images in this book are harrowing, such as the depiction of the shattered skulls of little girls, victims of the Nazis' "preferred" method of killing children by picking them up by their legs and swinging them into a brick wall. Imagine the horror....Szpilman's account is so matter-of-fact at times that you wonder how he survived. The fact that he did is a testament of human endurance, but also the ways of fate. There were occasions when he survived simply by the luck of the draw in a Godless universe.

5 comments about Etty Hillesum: An Interrupted Life the Diaries, 1941-1943 and Letters from Westerbork.

1. This book is an intelligent conversion story. The author, Etty Hillesum, begins writing at a time when her life was repugnant; and yet, she is obviously very intelligent and so reading what she wrote during that period is not a waste of time.
   
   Towards the middle of the book, Etty begins to change, and by the end, she is an admirable person - not just because she is intelligent, but also because she is good. It seems that her will changed, which is the definition of conversion.
   
   I would compare this book favorably with "Surprised by Joy", which is the autobiography of C.S. Lewis. "Surprised by Joy" is a great book for Christians. "Etty Hillesum" is a great book for anyone.
   
   
   Shawn T. Miller



2. This book would be one of the five. Its not about the Holocaust, not really. It is about one of the most soulful women who we all could learn so much from about how to approach our days. I cherish this book with all my heart. It came to me in a very weird way however! My parents were viisting me in Seattle when I lived there and while browsing in Elliott Bay Books, my mom handed me this book and said, "When I die I want this book buried with me!" I know, thats kind of a weird sell but she bought me my own copy (along with a separate one for her future plans) and I read it in one evening. I couldn't put it down. While she lived just a short distance from Anne Frank and was writing her journals at the same time, they are equally moving but worlds apart. Etty was in her late twenties while she wrote and her outlook on life is simply among the most remarkable I have ever encountered. I don't think I need to be buried with it but that doesn't mean I don't recommend it extremely highly for both men and women. Its a privilege to be able to recommend it, to know that even while her life was so tragically cut short at Auschwitz, that her journals survived and that maybe just one person more will come to her journals as a result of this review. You know what? I'd like to be buried with this book too. Also include a cupcake.



3. Etty Hillessum's diaries and her letters from Westerbork serve as an outstanding testament to the human spirit and the ability to find the sacred in the most horrific of situations. Although she was not a saint in the sense that Teresa of Avila or Juan de la Cruz were saints, she could properly be considered a mystic and a good example of a modern who had 'enlightened' insights. I find her diaries at once humane and modern in the sense of a liberated 'bohemian' who explored her sexuality and her psyche. As her diaries progress, her inner life (and oneness with God) deepens as the horrors of the realities of being Jewish in Europe during the Second World War becomes more apparent. I highly recommend this book! It will change your life!



4. This is one of the most profound documents ever written. Etty Hillesum was truly a person who had reached transforming union and had the ability to be able to share her experience through journaling and letters. She was unwaivering in her desire to see the beauty and meaning of life in one of the most difficult situations ever experienced on this planet. There are no words to express how deeply this work has influenced my life, except to say that I go back to her writing over and over again. She is a bright light for anyone seeking spiritual growth.



5. In nearly all of our nation's middle and high schools the Diary of Anne Frank is required reading. This present volume ought to be a required follow-up reading for the older student.
   
   This Owl Books publication includes excellent photographs and commentary to bring alive holistically the full presentation of this intelligent and searching young woman's life and vision, whose eight well-preserved copy books reveal to us her soul, supplemented by personal, surprisingly joyful and hopeful and positive do-not-lose-heart letters from a way station on the road to Auschwitz. Together this corpus of writing presents bright light in the deepest darkness and locus of despair. One cannot read these living words on the way to certain death without weeping, and reflecting, at the unreasonable cruelty and inexorable deadly fruit of any total war. One cannot read this without a cry for the end of all war.
   
   Please read this book in a prayerful way. Consider the promising and peaceful lives which were lost, whose voice rings out truly here in this thick volume of her writings, and resolve to work for peace, that we may never study war, no more. Let us work for peace, and pray with the prophet that our swords may soon be beat into plowshares, that all may live in peace to their fullest promise.
   
   This book brings to us the reality of the horror of hateful war, through Etty's human and hopeful and joyous and beautiful voice, ever encouraging those in the deepest despair until she herself is also placed on the road to Auschwitz, a road from which so very few ever returned.

5 comments about Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language.

1. this was one of the best books i've ever read. it was packed with profound insights. the writing itself is just beautiful.



2. A wonderful book on moving from one culture to another and one language to another--Polish to English. Anyone who has had this experience will immediately identify with the author. Eva Hoffman writes beautifully about every nuance of her family's move as a young teenager from Communist Poland to Canada. Cultures that are superficially similar turn out to be very different and the effect on family life is staggering.



3. Hoffman's description of Poland in the Communist years following World War II is riveting, and so is her narrative of life in the U.S. following her arrival here at age 13. But what impresses me most about this book is its assured writing style, and the author's ability to skip back and forth from one decade and year to another without boring or losing the reader. Hoffman is an unusually gifted writer. I am using her text as a teaching tool for a would-be memoir/autobiographer. Thank heaven her parents survived the Holocaust and brought her to us.



4. I started reading this wonderful book 6 months before I left Brazil towards Israel. After finishing the first Part (Paradise) I just could not keep on reading, and I abandoned the book for a while. After I landed in Israel I re-took the book and was delighted again with the realness of it. A thought occurred to me that the reading was so descriptive of the immigration sentiment that I just could not understand it before immigrating myself.
   
   The book helped me to understand and to organize the infinite sensations that come with the leaving/arriving to another country. How the language affects the way we think and act, how sadness and happiness are mingled into one strange feeling, how we cope and forget without noticing, and how we urge to succeed and prove that we can be part of the new country.
   
   In addition, the book also brought to me new feelings and curiosities about my grandparents, whom also escaped from Poland and Russia in the late 40's. Hoffman describes so well how the old traditions and languages influenced the new live of those who left their country because of prejudice and persecution!
   
   One passage that I am specially fond of: "No, I'm no patriot, nor was I ever allowed to be. And yet, the country of my childhood lives within me with a primacy that is a form of love. (...) All it has given me is the world, but that is enough. It has fed me language, perceptions, sounds, the human kind. It has given me the colors and the furrows of reality, my first loves. The absoluteness of those loves can never be recaptured: no geometry of the landscape, no haze in the air, will live in us as intensely as the landscapes that we saw as the first, and to which we gave ourselves wholly, without reservations." It reminds me of Wordsworth when he writes about Tintern Abbey.
   
   A wonderful life-changing book.



5. I loved this book when it came out and I love it still many rereadings later. This portrait of the Wandering Jew as a young girl begins with Hoffman's childhood in Cracow, Poland just after the second world war; moves to Vancouver, British Columbia when she is thirteen; continues on to Texas and Massachusetts for her university years; and ends in New York, where she becomes a writer and an editor at the New York Times Book Review. It encompasses many themes: the defining power of language; the cost of changing cultures, the construction of personal identity, and the consequences, for many Jews, of the Nazi and Communist regimes. Hoffman was born in the summer of 1945. Like many Jews in post-war, Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe, the Hoffmans observed Passover and had home-baked challah, on shabbat but Eva was culturally Polish, reading Sienkiewicz's nationalistic novels, playing Chopin etudes, attending church with her friends, receiving gifts on St. Nicholas's Day. After emigration, she adapts to North American culture, first Canadian, then Texan, then New York. This is a memoir squarely in the Jewish immigrant tradition but one in which the immigrant is a graduate student at Harvard, and relates her situation not only to Mary Antin but to contexts laid out by Sartre and Nabokov, Jung and Freud. Lost in Translation contains stories and essays, phrases to ruminate on, ideas to consider. It is a demanding read that challenges its reader to consider her own autobiography, her own childhood, her own assumptions. Having compiled an international bibliography of Jewish women's non-fiction books with poet Irena Klepfisz (available on my website) , I can say this is one of my favorites.